Water and the human culture of appropriation: the Vaal River up to 1956

Johann W.N Tempelhoff

doi:10.4102/td.v2i2.288

Abstract

There is discernable evidence of the human presence having historically appropriated the 1300 kilometer long Vaal River of South Africa as it extends itself from the Drakensberg Plateau into the arid Karoo region. This hard-working tributary of the Orange River, which was instrumental as a supply of water to the Witwatersrand, in the era of the region’s gold mines, has been used by humans in a variety of ways. First it was used as a route of communications, then as a borderline demarcating the territorial spaces of states and colonies. Later it was used for purposes of economic development. In the study the objective is to point towards the manner in which humans have influenced the river and its hinterland, particularly from the nineteenth century, up to the 1950s. The process of appropriation, it is argued, has had a different effect when humans laid claim to the river and its environment for social, economic and political purposes.

Highlights

Humans, nature and cultural appropriationAppropriation, a term encapsulated in the thinking of Veblen on consumption,[1] has been a prominent point of discussion in cultural sciences in recent years
Perhaps one of the most striking examples of appropriation is found in the manner in which humans, when they settle in specific environments, first appropriate the land and the available water resources
The appropriation of the river thrived on processes that were structured to promote a culture of unbridled consumerism

Summary

Introduction

Appropriation, a term encapsulated in the thinking of Veblen on consumption,[1] has been a prominent point of discussion in cultural sciences in recent years. Perhaps one of the most striking examples of appropriation is found in the manner in which humans, when they settle in specific environments, first appropriate the land and the available water resources In combination these two natural resources provide the essential substances required for the cultural dynamics of human settlement processes to clearly come to the fore. The extent to which nature had been subverted and manipulated by humans, forms the bottom line on the balance sheet of environmental and cultural conservation Despite their imminent threat, rivers as natural features of the landscape are more than often subjugated to the whims of humankind. The process of appropriation, transforming a natural feature of the land, is as old as orderly human society In this discussion attention will be given to the manner in which the Vaal River, a tributary of the Orange River, was used by humans up to the 1950s. Aspects of this discourse will be dealt with in greater detail below

The Vaal River

Economic appropriation of the river

Hydrological appropriation

Appropriation for purposes of energy and industrial development

Conclusion